VPN – The Ultimate Solution For Data Retention In Australia

Another devious attack on Australians’ online privacy was made by the Australian legislators on 26th March 2015. A new ‘Bill’ called ‘Data Retention Law’ was passed through the ‘Senate and House of Representatives’ with 21 votes in favor. The law enforces each and every ISP and Telecom carrier to collect and store the metadata of each and every person in Australia for at least 2 years.

The estimated budget to implement ‘Data Retention Plan’ is $400 million, which will be covered from the tax income. To collect and manage the data of 23 million Australians for at least 2 years, massive data warehouses will be required. Power, staff, technicians, analyst and other management staff expenses are separate from the estimated budget. To cover the ongoing expenses, the government is planning to add $5 additional tax on per internet user on a monthly basis.

Metadata retention in Australia not only cause mass surveillance, but will also increase the taxes. Check out below, why you should be scared of Data Retention in Australia.

Reasons – Why Data Retention in Australia is a Nightmare?

With everything dependent on the internet, the Australian government is getting more and more eager to collect as much metadata of its users as it possibly can. The Australian government believes that its quest for metadata retention will help it fight against terrorism and catch criminals. But, it is also an extremely intrusive measure against common Australians’ rights to privacy.

Here’re the detail of data that will be collected and stored:

Customer identities (IP, Physical Address and Mobile Number)

Type of communication (Device with which communication is made)

Recipient Details (With whom the communication is made)

The source and destination of the communication (Broadband, Mobile Internet, WiFi)

The date, time and duration of the communication

The location of the equipment used during the communication (Physical Location)

The collected metadata can be used by the governments to create or illustrate a pretty accurate profile of any Australian. The profile may contain information about likes and dislikes, medical history, financial situations, relationship status, political views and even taste in food – the list goes on and on! Just imagine, your PC, laptop, mobile, smartphone, tablet and consoles are all interlinked and they all produce metadata. Darn, that’s so scary right?

VPN – The Ultimate Solution to Bypass Data Retention in Australia

Malcolm Turnbull, the Communication Minister of Australia, suggested quite a few back doors to avoid metadata retention.

He said:

“Encryption is the best way to bypass metadata retention, once your data is encrypted, the ISP can see that you are online, but they cannot capture your activities”.

He also suggested using secure email clients like Gmail and Wicker that encrypts your communication from both ends.

VPN is the best solution when it comes to encryption.

“A VPN allows users to communicate privately and securely over a remote network, using their PC, Mac, Android or iOS device, router or any connected, configurable device. As soon as you connect to a VPN, ALL of your network traffic is sent through an encrypted VPN tunnel, keeping all your data secure and out of sight and out of reach from eavesdroppers (in this case Australian intelligence agencies and law enforcement)”.

When you use a VPN your ISP can see you are online, but they CANNOT see the websites you visit – they are blind to your online activities.

The good news for Australians is that they can use a virtual private network (VPN) to hide their IP address, not only from their ISP, but from the 2500 appointed officers of 21 Australian agencies that collects, store and monitor the metadata.

If you live in Australia, how do you feel about the data retention plan? Do you think it is a good idea, or does it concern you that your government is hovering up your data?

Be smart – use hide.me to hide your metadata from the Australian’s data retention plan and give them a cold shoulder!